One Arrochar teacher Joann Karbowski, told the Advance she wanted to "kiss the ground when I got home" after driving on the SIE in the snow recently, with "no lights, no lane markings and no one in front of me" to pave the way.

She and others -- including Borough President James Oddo and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) -- also have raised concerns regarding poor signage that makes exiting the expressway at the intended exit problematic.

In particular, exit alerts in the vicinity of the Bradley Avenue split, which list exit numbers rather than familiar street names, have led to confusion.

"We are looking at adding a sign with street names," Duffy told the Advance. "We have two flashing electronic variable message boards warning of the split and directing exiting traffic to the right (for exits 9-11). The boards are limited in the amount of characters that can be displayed, which makes it difficult to spell out the street names."

Oddo has said he is looking to set up a meeting with state Transportation pronto to review all concerns.

"We're willing to put up with rational pain to get the gain," Oddo has said of the massive, multi-year SIE redo.

But Oddo said safety fixes "should be simple enough to do."

"Safety is the department's number one priority," Duffy told the Advance, "and we will work to address these concerns."